Neko-Musume
Neko-Musume (猫娘, ねこ娘 or ネコ娘 Cat Girl) is a cat yōkai and a member of the Kitarō Family. In nearly all adaptations, she has a romantic interest in Kitarō. Cast *Anime **Nana Yamaguchi (1st anime) **Yōko Kogushi (2nd anime) **Yūko Mita (3rd anime) **Chinami Nishimura (4th anime) **Hiromi Konno (5th anime) **Shoko Nakagawa (Hakaba Kitarō) **Yūko Minaguchi (Yo-Kai Watch film) **Umeka Shōji (6th anime) *Video Games **Yūko Miyamura (GeGeGe no Kitarō: Ibun Yōkai Kitan) **Satomi Satō (GeGeGe no Kitarō: Black Kitarō no Yabō) *Live action **Aoi Morikawa (Mizuki Shigeru no GeGeGe no Kaidan) **Rena Tanaka (2007 & 2008 film) Appearance Out of every character of in the show, Neko-Musume has gone through the most change. Her regular attire consists of a long-sleeve white blouse, a pink dress with suspenders, pink shoes, and a pink bow in her hair. In the 2nd anime only, she instead wears a red one-piece dress with yellow polka dots and a white collar. Her hair is usually in a bowl cut. In GeGeGe no Kitarō: Yōkai Sen-Monogatari, she wears a black gothic-lolita dress and has shoulder length hair, but in the 2nd part her hair is changed to match her 5th anime cut. About She normally appears human, but when she gets angry or sees fish or rats, her eyes turn gold and cat-like and she bares her fangs. Predictably, she does not get along well with Nezumi-Otoko. She harbors a crush on Kitarō, who sees her only as a friend in most adaptations. In Mizuki Pro books she is officially classified as a half-yōkai, like Nezumi-Otoko, though this is rarely touched upon. In one instance, Kitarō told her that Nezumi-Otoko couldn't be trusted because he's half-yōkai, but Neko-Musume didn't show any offense to the comment. Also, in GeGeGe no Kitarō: Kunitori Monogatari she spoke ill of Nezumi-Otoko's breeding with comments like "he's tainted with human blood" and "he's not a real yōkai" and was once scolded by Nurikabe for her prejudice. In the earliest anime adaptations (2 through 4), she would often have fan service moments such as panty shots, though in the 5th and Hakaba anime, which were produced after TV decency standards changed, these fan service cuts never happen. In the 5th anime, she is very fond of human fashion and is seen in different outfits and uniforms. In the 6th anime she's noticeable taller and less child-like in feature, gaining an adult, mature body with longer legs and more delicate features, along with red stiletto heels. She seems also able to control her transformations, gaining a more grotesque, cat-like face with a huge fanged mouth, yellow eyes and a flat nose upon going to battle. In this status, she's fully overtaken by cat instincts: despite being able to recognize friend from foe, she seldom speaks, howling and wailing ominously and charges on all fours, hitting and scratching furiously. In the GeGeGe no Kitarō novel, Neko-Musume first meets Kitarō right after he leaves his foster home, when she comes across him chasing Nezumi-Otoko, whom had stolen his fish. She had heard of him beforehand from Sunakake-Babaa and notices his high power upon seeing him. She is often the one to punish Nezumi-Otoko when he commits ill deeds, usually scratching him to shreds with her razor sharp claws. As a result, Nezumi-Otoko fears her and views her as his mortal enemy. However, they have been shown to work well as a team in battle. Manga history Neko-Musume first appeared in the Shonen Magazine story Nezumi-Otoko and Neko-Musume, though a number of similar characters appeared before hand. In this first story, she did not wear her signature ribbon. In the Shonen Sunday version, Kitarō has a girlfriend named Nekoko whose face becomes cat-like when angered like Neko-Musume, though she is not a yōkai but a human with a strange disease. A Neko-Musume who wore a ribbon like in the 2nd and 3rd anime began to appear in the manga stories during the 80s. It could be said that the anime Neko-Musume was imported into the manga. It was also around this time that her profile began appearing in manga related guidebooks, where it was established that she attended the same yōkai primary school as Kitarō. She appears in the Zoku GeGeGe no Kitarō story Neko-Musume. While Kitarō is attending high school, neko-Musume is enrolled in the Bizarre Women's University's Strange Studies department. She now has whiskers on her cheeks like Nezumi-Otoko, wears an extravagant coat and has developed a fairly arrogant personality. This is also the first time she is shown working a part-time job and spending her income on Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji, which would later become standard for her in the 5th anime. She wants to live with Kitarō, so she plots to drive away Nezumi-Otoko. However, Nezumi-Otoko sets a trap for her and sucks her into a strange book. She isn't seen again during this series. However, she reappears in Shin GeGeGe no Kitarō as a student at Kitarō's alma mater Under the Grave High School. Her appearance is different from in Zoku, she now has her hair in braids with her bangs parted. This version of Neko-Musume is later seen in the GeGeGe no Kitarō Challenge Series story Secret of the Geoglyph. It has been suggested that these two versions of Neko-Musume are actually different characters. Kaiki Neko-Musume Mizuki's pre-Kitarō story Kaiki Neko-Musume featured a Neko-Musume named Midori who had the same involuntary face-changing reaction to the smell of fish as the Kitarō Neko-Musume. Midori was cursed with this ability from birth because her father killed a giant black cat. In another parralel to the Kitarō franchise, Midori was also born in and crawled out of a grave like Kitarō. Neko in Hakaba Kitarō A similar character appears in the original rental manga Hakaba Kitarō. Though she had a similar appearance and powers to Neko-Musume, she was a mostly different character. Abilities *'Claws and Fangs' *'Enhanced Agility' *'Combat skills' *'Yōkai Energy' *'Enhanced Perception' *'Cat Language' Anime Portrayals 1st Like in the original manga, she only appears as a guest character in the story Nezumi-Otoko and Neko-Musume. She has a dry personality and appears to have little regard for human life, eagerly accepting a job to kill a human for Enma-Daiō. This is the only adaptation where she does not have her trademark ribbon. 2nd She appears as a main character starting with the first episode. At the time, the Shonen Sunday manga was being serialized, but instead of using the Neko-Musume from those stories, Nekoko, they instead used the design of the original Shonen Magazine Neko-Musume. Neko-Musume also stood in for Nekoko in the adaptations of the stories she appeared in. She is fairly doting with Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji, regularly shopping and cooking for them. She is quite the tomboy but usually speaks very politely, usually referring to Kitarō as "Kitarō-san". When Kitarō calls her "Neko-chan" she blushes happily and later refers to Medama-Oyaji as "father-in-law". She is rarely in any battle scenes but is shown to be strong enough to defeat one of Yamata-no-Orochi's head, although his other heads were shown to be easily defeated by Kitarō's hair needles. This series is the only adaptation where Neko-Musume will easily be swayed into going along with Nezumi-Otoko's schemes. She even occasionally calls him "Nezumi-Otoko-san". However, there are still many occasions where she punishes or lashes out at him, often calling him a "filthy rat". Although she hates when he is disrespectful to Kitarō, she saves him from Dorotabō in the first episode and even cries for him when he momentarily died (Ep. 26). Her trademark ribbon was first introduced in this series. As mentioned above, she wears a red one-piece dress with yellow polka dots and a white collar. Her ribbon is pink and longer than in other adaptations. 3rd Her face is fairly boyish, though her figure is more like an adult woman's. She and Kitarō appear to be equals in this series, as they refer to each other by name without name suffixes. Because the heroine role in this series was given to original character Yumeko Tendo, many episodes saw Neko-Musume play a smaller role. Although Yumeko is her rival for Kitarō's affections and they clash over this frequently, Neko-Musume still gets along with her as a friend. Her feelings for Kitarō are son strong that she will sometimes lose focus in his presence, such as in Ep. 11 when she suggested they get married while she was posing as a bride to trick Hakusanbō. In Ep. 3, she was very annoyed at Yumeko (under the control of Neko-Sennin) shoving her aside to run to Kitarō, though she did the same thing in Ep. 2 when she accidentally kick Medama-Oyaji while running to Kitarō. Later in the series, her more feminine side is emphasized and she is even sometimes hit on by male characters. Her tolerance for Nezumi-Otoko is much weaker this time around, and she will frequently be the one to punish him for his misdeeds. Her specialty is making "catnip mochi", which she often makes for Kitarō, and Kitarō even mentions in Ep. 3 that he thinks highly of the dish. In that same episode, she throws several catnip mochi at the cats controlled by Neko-Sennin in order to calm them down. In Movie 4, Nezumi-Otoko claims catnip mochi is his favorite food. She is not a half-yōkai in this series, and will even derisively refer to Nezumi-Otoko as "that half-yōkai". Her hair is slightly longer than in the previous anime, her dress is red and her ribbon is a darker pink. She is 146cm and 39kg in the first half of the series, and 152cm and 45kg in the latter half. Her three sizes are 80C-54-83 (cm). 4th Her personality is more reserved than normal, much like Kitarō's. Because Kitarō doesn't have a soft spot for pretty girls like in the 80s version, Neko-Musume is also portrayed as more mature and never gets jealous. Though she is once again shown to have feelings for Kitarō, the exact nature of their relationship is never clarified. For the most part she treats him like a friend, but she will usually be the happiest to see him return alive (Ep. 78 & 106) and has cried (Ep. 84) or been close to crying when she believed he was dead (Ep. 100 & 114). Additionally, in Makura-Gaeshi's dream world she sees Kitarō asking her out. Ubaga-Bi, who hated the sight of loving couples, flew into a rage when Neko-Musume hid behind Kitarō during their fight, mistaking them for a couple. She once again frequently attacks Nezumi-Otoko when he gets out of line, though he will occasionally get her back with his bad breath attack. Despite this, she is shown to care for him to some extent, as she was the only one to cry for him when Yasha took his soul. In Ep. 84, a young artist paints a Man-Eating Portrait (born from the artist's personal grudges) that eats Kitarō, Nezumi-Otoko and Sunakake-Babaa. Neko-Musume is enraged and tries to avenge them, but eventually she decides to calm the artist with a song. The artist realizes what he's done and the portrait spits out Kitarō and the other victims, becoming a mere embodiment of the grudge which Kitarō destroys with his chanchanko. She does not grow like a human woman, only growing slowly over the decades, a fact which seems to bother her. Because of this, Rakshasa's spell (which brings out it's victims greatest desire) turns her into an attractive and seductive woman and uses her to try and capture Kitarō (Ep. 89). In Ep. 101, Ikkokudō's spell changes her into a human girl holding a cat. This is the first time an anime adaptation has touched on the seldom used manga trait of her being a half-yōkai like Nezumi-Otoko. Despite this, she still has a considerable amount of yōkai energy. She isn't as powerful as most of the Kitarō Family, but is considerably more powerful that Nezumi-Otoko. In Ep. 79, when she and the others fell into the Chinese Yōkai's pitfall, she was able to quickly dig a tunnel out with her claws so everyone could escape. She was possibly originally human and transformed into a yōkai, much like Odoro-Odoro. Unlike with Yumeko from the previous series, Neko-Musume and Kitarō's human friend Yūko Murakami get along fine, though they actually rarely appear together, so a real relationship is never established between them. She regularly eats canned cat food. Her hair is purple and in a bob cut and her regular face is more cat-like than normal. Her height is 141cm and her weight is 34kg. 5th Her appearance is a bit modernized, her light brown hair in a short cut and her facial features a little more human-like. She is also slightly taller than normal and has pointy ears, though she still has the same feral face when angered. She will sometimes use he pink ribbon as a rope (or other tools) to help Kitarō. She also often wears different clothes than her classic outfit, and she is shown to be considered attractive by other characters. In the film GeGeGe no Kitarō: Nippon Bakuretsu!!, she was depicted in different outfits for local versions of the film (in the national and home release versions, she was dressed like a marathon runner). Unlike past adaptations, she is almost never victim to a panty shot. The exception to this was when she worked as a bus tour guide. She works various part-time jobs in the human world and, as a result, is far more familiar with human customs and society than most yōkai, even Kitarō. When she works in the human world she use assumed names, such as Hiromi Nekota (猫田 宏美, Nekota Hiromi), Hiromi Neko (根古 宏美, Neko Hiromi) and Hiromi Nekonozuka (猫野塚 宏美, Nekonozuka Hiromi). She serves as a bridge between her friends at Yōkai Yokochō and the human realm and is highly trusted by the other yōkai. She is particularly close with the Tengu Police, becoming friends with the Dai-Tengu and Kuro-Karasu. She is high-spirited and can be self motivated, but she never acts selfishly. She sometimes meddles in other people's affairs, but she is mostly an honest person. As in other adaptations, she can also be motherly and doting. She often cooks for Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji, but she is not very good at making sweets. In Ep. 60 she blows up a confection oven, and in Ep. 95 she makes a Valentine chocolate for Kitarō "filled with love", but it was shape and taste were so bad Amabie said that her love was "a tainted love". Although she is usually kind, she will sometimes go into Bake-Neko mode with little provocation. In one job interview she claimed to be 21, but the interviewer said she looked like a junior high student, resulting in her Bake-Neko face coming out. She is kinder toward humans than Kitarō, though she will still lash out at evil humans. She is very jealous when it comes to Kitarō and hates it when beautiful girls ask him for help. She is very good friends with Rokuro-Kubi, as they often work together in the human world, though she does get jealous of her progress in her relationship with her boyfriend. She calls her Roku-chan and Rokuro-Kubi calls her Neko-chan. Enma-Daiō and Sō-Daiō choose her and Nezumi-Otoko to assist Kitarō and locate the 47 Yōkai Warriors. As usual, she does get along with Nezumi-Otoko, though she does once admit to being jealous that he's known and been friends with Kitarō for so long (Ep. 27). Though she doesn't understand how Kitarō can stay friends with him, she will save Nezumi-Otoko when his life is in danger in order to spare Kitarō the experience of losing friend (Ep. 14). She often forcibly brings Kitarō to go see romantic movies, oblivious to the fact that he has no interest in them. 6th She has purple hair like her 90s counterpart, but it is tied up into a bun. She is also taller than her previous incarnations, and wears tall heels. Her appearance in this incarnation follows the Tsundere archetype: as for the past incarnations of her character, she's obviously in love with Kitaro, but she actively denies that, hiding her most obvious feelings to keep a collected demeanor, usually rectracting her affectionate spurs by blushing and downplaying what she did: in episode 2 she rushes at the side of a wounded Kitaro crying him dead, on the verge of tears, but when she sees him alive and all the Kitaro Family looking at her, she blushes and goes away, hiding her face, coldly telling them to call her again only when Kitaro was truly dead. The Tsundere side of her personality affects also her other interactions: when Mana Inuyama shows friendship and affection to her, she's obviously flattered, but ultimately chooses to downlplay it. Neko-Musume is still able to change in her Bake-Neko form, which is as grotesque as her human form is delicate and feminine, with a face decidedly monstrous and yokai like, with a flattened nose, a bigger mouth filled of sharp fangs and yellow, slitted eyes. She keeps her body structure, but she starts moving on all fours, faster than her human way of walking, howling and wailing ominously. Image Songs *100 Percent no Yōkai CAT by Maki Nomiya w/Yūko Mita as Neko Musume (1985 anime) *NADE-NADE shite by Hiromi Konno (2007 anime) *Crazy for You (Kimi ni Meroron) by Shoko Nakagawa (Hakaba Kitarō (2008)) Gallery Neko-Musume/Gallery See also *Nekoko *Kaiki Neko-Musume Trivia *Although an original character created by Shigeru Mizuki, the Neko-Musume has become officially recognized in yōkai lore. *Her favorite foods are fish, bonito flakes and rats. *In the original manga, she lived in a shrine near a ramen shop in Chōfu. *She is part of a cat yōkai group. There are a couple of other cat yōkai like Neko-mana and Neko-Sennin. * In the 2002 Kodansha International Bilingual Comics edition, she is referred to as Cat Chick. * In the 1968 anime, she addresses Kitaro as "Kitaro-chan". But in the 1971 anime she addresses Kitaro as "Kitaro-san". *''Wayward'''s Ayane is based on Neko-Musume. Category:Characters Category:Female characters Category:Yōkai Category:Mizuki Original Yōkai Category:Human-like Yōkai Category:Animal-like Yōkai Category:Cat Yōkai Category:Kitarō Family Category:Yōkai Yokochō residents